Au Revoir Kpalime

“Every farewell combines loss and new freedom.”

~Mason Cooley

Yesterday morning I left Kpalime for the last time and boy was that an odd feeling. It felt sad to leave this place I have called home for the last two years, but not as sad as most people would expect, because I am really ready to leave. More than anything there is a feeling of accomplishment; I felt like giving myself a high-five because I DID IT! I served for two years in the Peace Corps in Africa. Through all the hard times I never gave up. 

There were lots of trials, like two years drinking bleached water, hand-washing my laundry in a bucket, and burning my trash. I endured daily harassment and shouts of "Yovo" whenever out in public, eventually getting followed by a drunk man during a morning run (which was the end of my running routine! ha) I survived malaria and feeling like I was going to die, losing my toenails, getting hit by a motorcycle in town, and lots and lots of diarrhea. I lived to tell the tale of a rollover car accident and hospitalization in South Africa. Then, of course, there was the constant heat and humidity, the bugs and bats, and times of isolation and loneliness that you can feel when no one living around you speaks your language.

On the flip side, even though I know this probably sounds really self-centered, I feel very proud of what I achieved here with my work, teaching English, creating a library, running clubs and an English camp, and bringing a U.S. Embassy program to my school. I hope that in some small way I helped the Togolese people to understand a little bit more about the United States, and that Americans and anyone else reading this blog learned something positive about life in Togo.

It was hard to say my final goodbyes these last couple of days, but at the same time I feel SO thankful that I had the chance to meet these wonderful people who will stay in my heart forever. They taught me so much about what is truly important in life. I made many friendships here and that doesn’t just end because I am leaving. Thanks to technology, we can stay in touch, and I hope that someday I will be able to come back to Togo and see these friends again.

During my entire service I had a poster hanging in my living room of JFK and one of his famous quotes, saying “Everyone can make a difference and every person should try.” Those words inspired me every day and will continue to do so in the future. I learned a lot over these last two years, but one of the biggest lessons was to keep on trying. Things may not happen perfectly, they hardly ever do, so you just have to keep on trying and never give in to defeat.

I am in Lome now for the next week, finishing up some administrative stuff before I leave Togo. This process is called Close of Service (COS) and for the first time in Peace Corps Togo all the people who came in together are leaving together on the same day. So I will be spending the next week going through this process with my fellow volunteers who came to Togo with me in July 2012. We will have one last, final hurrah before parting and setting off on our next adventures.